There are potentially “huge risks” to the supply routes relied upon by hospitals in Central Lancashire - depending on the outcome of Brexit.

A board meeting of Lancashire Teaching Hospitals also heard that the number of EU staff employed at the two sites - but who are planning to leave the UK after Brexit - has increased in the last six months.

Finance Director Paul Havey told members that the government had initially advised trusts to sit tight following the referendum result in June 2016.

“For a long time, the Department for Health said ‘don’t do anything’ - and [only more recently] have we been analysing our supplier relationships.

“There was no clarity about what we, as an organisation, should do and so we have now spoken to our suppliers about their chains.

“Some are multinational companies and there are huge risks about how much comes in through those few main supply routes,” Mr. Havey said.

Meanwhile, the meeting also heard “anecdotal evidence” that a growing number of the trust’s EU staff were intending to leave in the next twelve months.

“More staff have indicated that they are not likely to stay beyond next year,” Karen Swindley, workforce director at the trust, said.

“That wasn’t the case six months ago and we are continuing to feed that back to the NHS nationally,” she added.

Responding to the comments, a spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said:

“As a responsible government, we are planning for all eventualities in the event of a no deal. This includes working with pharmaceutical companies and the NHS to ensure patients have continued access to the medicines and they need.